In Light of Israel’s War on Iran, the Late David Glick’s 2015 Essay Proves Sadly Predictive

Editor’s Note: Who was David Glick?

According to his obituary, David Glick was a respected psychotherapist, accomplished poet, a tireless advocate for social justice, and a self-described “proud, anti-Zionist Jew.” David’s written works extended beyond poetry into political commentary, with his op-eds appearing in the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs and Tikkun magazine.

He was also a prominent voice in Bay Area public discourse through his frequent and thoughtful letters to the editor, published in the Marin Independent Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and East Bay Times. His writings, particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, were known for their principled stance and deep humanitarian concerns.

David’s writing was guided by a profound belief that spirituality without political awareness is incomplete, just as political action without spiritual depth lacks essential humanity. He devoted his life to finding and sharing what he called the “sweet spot” between these polarities, believing it held the key to healing our troubled world. 

1. David Glick in Memoriam; David Glick as Predictor

“The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain, he fell madly in love with him.” –Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I wasn’t the first person over the years to fall in love with David Glick at first sight. The much-praised psychotherapist and peace activist was wise and empathetic, qualities contrasted by his own occasionally subversive sense of humor. There was a dash of Joseph Heller, a touch of Mad Magazine, and Glick wasn’t above practical jokes.

But on some issues, he didn’t kid.

Many decades ago, David Glick’s activism had earned him a spot on a list of anti-Zionist Jewish activists compiled by pro-Israel extremists. The list was called Masada 2000. There were substantial costs, professionally and personally, for many of those placed on the list. The experience still unnerved Glick, as it had many others.

“I love what you’re exposing,” he often told me, “but they’ll come after you for this.”

I had come to enjoy sharing documents I retrieved with Glick before I published articles; he was generous in providing insight. Glick had been primarily interested in how the Israel lobby functioned with regard to foreign policy. But because I was always digging around in local government documents, I ended up being his introduction to how the lobby functioned at the local level.

Glick was surprised by the documents showing JCRC junkets to Israel for local educators, which I unearthed on a tip from a sharp-eyed Palestinian educator, as well as the California state educational funds I had started to find moving through Marin County for the $87 million-in-assets, private nonprofit “Jewish Family and Children’s Services.”

“This is great,” Glick enthused. “But you need to watch your back.”

“Who doesn’t?” I asked.

I won’t diminish the experiences of those targeted by the Israel lobby. Students have been arrested; activists deported. Palestinian activist Alex Odeh was assassinated by pro-Israel extremists in Southern California, while in San Francisco, the ADL spied on reporters and activists, a matter that the San Francisco District Attorney at the time tried to prosecute. And the list is much longer, sadly.

But like Israel itself, the Israel lobby thrives on intimidation; it can’t keep bullying if enough people punch back.

So while even the “independent” media refuses to examine the impact of the local Israel lobby groups, the path for latecomers like myself had unquestionably been paved by risks that so many older activists and reporters (including Glick) had taken, with more to lose.

Half a year passed between the first time I watched David speak in public and when I finally met him in person. The circumstances of that eventual meeting were fraught: a tense June 2024 council meeting regarding a peace proclamation that ran until after 1:00 am. In the yard outside the meeting room, Glick was verbally and physically harassed by a gang of pro-Israel women whipped into a frenzy by JCRC Bay Area director Jonathan Mintzer.

The video below shows David Glick’s perfectly civil, and quite moving, comments at that meeting about the conditions Palestinians faced, and our own responsibility to demand a ceasefire.

It was Glick’s sincerity and openness that prompted the pro-Israel women to attack him. I wrote about the incident here, and within a few days, Glick had read the article and left a voicemail for me. After discussing it with some of his friends, I’ve decided to share that voicemail message here, as it seems more timely than ever. The US has now entered an expanded conflict in the Middle East this weekend, a conflict that David Glick long warned could be the result of Israel’s bellicose behavior.

Most know that the “kapo” epithet the pro-Israel women hurled at David Glick was hateful, but it’s important to hear from him how much it upset him: “That’s one of the most despicable words you can use to describe a Jew.” It was also wholly inaccurate, given David’s own heroism and that of his uncle, who had rescued thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany, as I detailed in earlier articles about David’s family.

This weekend, people who loved David Glick dearly and long, or who simply admired him, will attend his memorial. David’s long organizing, his careful research, his articles — these were things I urged him to commit to an oral history. He never got that chance, and I regret not pushing that idea more with him.

I’m sharing this article that he wrote in 2015 for Mondoweiss, a much-needed publication overseen by Philip Weiss (formerly of The New York Observer) and Adam Horowitz. In it, Glick makes a brief reference to something that most US media has long struggled to acknowledge: That Israel is a nuclear-armed state.

2. Cryptocurrency Exchange “Coinbase” Sponsored Trump’s Military Parade – of COURSE there’s a Mill Valley connection, and it links to the Salberg family

“No Kings” and the Latest Quinnipiac Poll

Two weeks ago, millions of Americans protested the Trump administration as part of nationwide “No Kings” protests, boosted in part by Christy Walton, heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. Wal-Mart itself has long supported various pro-Israel organizations, and Christy Walton has funded the conservative, pro-Israel “Lincoln Project”. Thus, it was no surprise to learn from Marin County attendees that signs protesting Israel at the “No Kings” protests were sparse.

But looks can be deceptive: The contrast between what you saw at the protests and recent polling was dramatic. On June 11, Quinnipiac released poll results showing only 12% of Democrats now favor Israel over Palestinians, while 60% of Democrats now favor Palestinians over Israel. And that was before Israel started bombing Tehran in advance of the negotiations that were supposed to take place two weeks ago.

The urgency of the moment, as Israel was simultaneously bombing Tehran and shooting starving Palestinian parents and children trapped in food lines, was not lost on many protesters. One Marinite, wearing a brilliantly designed Palestinian flag dress, distributed flyers for “Taxpayers Against Genocide” at a “No Kings” event in the North Bay. Her flyers were warmly received by Democrats.

The Soft Parade, Sponsored by San Francisco-based Coinbase; An Introduction to the Salberg Men

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a not-quite-enthusiastic military parade was being held at the behest of President Trump. If anything, the drab procession conveyed how fatigued US military personnel feel after decades of various “wars” waged in Muslim countries. But at least one Bay Area company was shameless enough to put its name on the event: Coinbase, the embattled San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange.

It should be no surprise that another environmentally ruinous tech company is shamelessly funding Trump’s whims. And if you know Marin County, you know it’s going to have some swamp-like Mill Valley connection. That connection is Jordan Salberg, Mill Valley homeowner, “Senior Product Counsel” for Coinbase, and recently elected Democratic Party Delegate for AD-12.

But Jordan Salberg is more than just a cryptocurrency attorney. He comes from an impressive lineage of Israel lobbyists, including his father, Michael Salberg, and his grandfather, Melvin Salberg, both of whom held critical leadership positions at some of the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying groups in the US.

Salberg Came In Last of all the Winning AD12 Delegate Candidates, But He Still Won

Such familial connections didn’t hinder Jordan Salberg’s victory over a working-class, anti-war Marine Corps veteran for an AD12 Democratic delegate seat. (Salberg had the lowest number of votes for any of the winners, and the anti-war veteran, Trevor Merrell, who was working full-time and studying to be a nurse, was coldly excluded from either of the AD12-specific slates.)

The delegate candidates who won in AD12 skewed heavily pro-Israel, including the co-Chair of JCRC’s “Bay Area Network of Jewish Officials”, Rachel Kertz, and BANJO members Melissa Blaustein, Janice Cader Thompson, and Janelle Kellman. The fourteen winning AD12 delegates are primarily, if not entirely, white. Of the fourteen who won delegate seats, at least half are either BANJO members or have strong ties to the local Israel lobby

Read that last sentence again and substitute the lobby of any other country for Israel. Substituting lobbyists from China, Mexico, Senegal, Spain, et cetera would raise eyebrows. But if it’s lobbyists for Israel, it’s barely noticed. That’s the power of the Israel lobby, even in local and state politics.

Jordan Salberg Isn’t Your Average Nepo-Baby; He’s the Nepo-Baby of an Israel Lobbyist Who Is Himself the Nepo-Baby of One of the Great Israel Lobbyists of All Time

Last February, I reported that Jordan Salberg is the son of Michael Salberg, who had served as the “Director for International Affairs Policy and Planning” at the powerful “Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations” (commonly shortened to “the Conference of Presidents” or COP). This appointment was made after Michael Salberg’s lengthy service at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). But that was only part of the story, since it excluded the biggest Salberg of all, the late, great Melvin Salberg.

The Conference of Presidents is not nearly as well-known as AIPAC or the ADL, but it is extremely powerful. Seth Morrison of Jewish Voice for Peace explained that the Conference of Presidents “sets the broad pro-Israel policy that guides the advocacy of the major Jewish organizations in the US.” It is, in Morrison’s words, “the heart of the Israel lobby.”

To Morrison’s point, the Conference of Presidents still excludes those pro-Israel groups that it deems too “progressive”, such as J Street.

The Big Daddy: Melvin Salberg

Long before Michael Salberg (Jordan Salberg’s father), became Director of “the Conference”, there was another Salberg, a far more influential one. That was Melvin Salberg, father of Michael Salberg, and grandfather of Coinbase’s Jordan Salberg. A news archive search for Melvin Salberg is a fascinating time capsule of Israel lobbying in the years before and after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. What you see in the Melvin Salberg archives not only overlaps with important cases and historical figures, including Jonathan Pollard (pic below of Pollard stealing documents), but even the environmental plans for Israel, many of which have turned out to be disastrous.

By many accounts, Melvin Salberg was a skilled attorney but, more importantly, a “moderate” who brought members of the pro-Israel Jewish community together, while excluding voices that were critical of Israel. One task to which Melvin Salberg was either incapable or uninterested in applying his considerable diplomacy was establishing any boundaries for the hawkish policies that American Jewish institutions and donors set for Israel, frequently over the objections of Israelis themselves in that era.

The ADL Is (Still) Not What It Seems

And before either Melvin or Michael Salberg had leadership positions at “The Conference”, both held various influential positions at the Anti-Defamation League. Yes, the same ADL of which former AD12 Assemblyman and failed State Insurance Commissioner Candidate Marc Levine is now a regional director.

If you’re still unfamiliar with how brutal the ADL is, I again recommend Emmaia Gelman’s excellent 2019 exposé in Boston Review.

From Gelman’s article:

“For at least three decades, the (Anti-Defamation League) ADL had targeted civil rights groups from liberals to revolutionaries: anti-Apartheid activists, legal advocates (including from the ACLU), and community groups. The ADL also surveilled ethnic representational groups, particularly Arab, black, and Jewish groups, concerned about Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Among other information, they had addresses and car registrations of 4,500 members of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADc). The ADc had been bombed and its director, Alex Odeh, murdered during the ADL’s project. The FBI suspected the Jewish Defense League (JDL), but community members suspected that the ADL either facilitated or tolerated the JDL’s attacks.”

Alex Odeh was a Palestinian, and he was also a Catholic. He was assassinated in Santa Ana in 1985, and his pro-Israel killers were allowed to flee to Israel. Years later, journalist Chris Hedges tracked one of the suspected killers, Robert Manning, to his residence in Israel at Kiryat Arba. But it took Israel four years to comply with the US government’s request to extradite Manning. Odeh’s statue in California has been repeatedly defaced by JDL members.

From Schmattes and Cement to Chairing The Conference of Presidents: The Rise of Melvin Salberg

Out of all three Salbergs, Melvin may have been the most significant. He was a powerful attorney, notably on the side of employers, per his former firm’s praiseful obituary:

“In his professional career, Mr. Salberg served as management’s chief spokesman and strategy advisor in union-management collective bargaining in numerous industries, including paper and pulp, cement, electronics, publishing, communications, garment, and other manufacturing and service industries, as well as not-for-profit institutions.” (Cement and schmattes? Nothing to worry about there.)

But Melvin Salberg was long in service to the ADL prior to becoming its National Chair from 1990-1994. In 1997, Salberg was simultaneously appointed Chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations and President of the American Zionist Movement. The appointment was heralded as a wise pick by the Jewish press in the US, as he was seen as a moderate able to knit together various strains of (entirely pro-Israel) Jewish leaders. (He also had leadership positions in Beit Morasha of Jerusalem.)

Melvin Salberg was “closely involved in Middle East peace negotiations at the request of President Bush and President Clinton” in both his ADL and Conference of Presidents positions. (A May 31, 2016, article in Jewish Insider shows that Salberg backed a potential challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu, Moshe Bogie Ya’alon; Ya’alon had previously referred to Palestinians as a “cancer”.)

The ADL Spying Case

Two notes about Melvin Salberg that caught my eye in a 1997 Jweekly article about Salberg’s appointment to Chair the Conference of Presidents:

“He led efforts to defend the ADL when it faced charges in California a few years ago that the activities it employed to monitor organizations violated privacy laws. The case was settled out of court, with the ADL admitting no wrongdoing.”

Well, that’s not quite how The Washington Post reported the charges. Nor the Los Angeles Times, which offered this detail:

“The intelligence gathering activities of the Anti-Defamation League came to light last year when the FBI stumbled onto the fact that Roy Bullock, an ADL operative, and San Francisco Police Officer Tom Gerard, a former employee of the CIA, were selling information to the South African government.”

In fact, most publications treated it as a serious spying case. And had it not been for an anti-war Republican former congressman, Pete McCloskey, who had also been targeted by the ADL, the victims might never have had an attorney. You can read a little bit about it here. One of the ADL’s spying victims was the great photographer, journalist, and activist, Jeffrey Blankfort.

The JNF’s “Aforestation”

Here’s the second note from the same 1997 Jweekly article about Melvin Salberg:

“More recently, he was legal counsel to the Jewish National Fund, where revelations surfaced last year of problems in accounting and spending practices. He also serves as JNF’s chairman of the International Arid Lands Consortium and Forest Service Programs.”

Jewish National Fund is the group that was responsible for planting the non-native trees in Israel that turned out to be so flammable earlier this year. But the plantings were controversial for other reasons, as described by Jacobin:

“Yatir Forest in present-day Israel is an entirely planted woodland in the desert region referred to by Palestinians as the Naqab and Israelis as the Negev. The four million trees that make up the Yatir were planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) beginning in the 1960s, as part of a long-standing campaign pitching tree planting in Israel to Jews in the United States and elsewhere as a beneficent act of environmentalism and a means of memorializing loved ones.

“In reality, as +972 Magazine describes, the JNF’s forestry workers were accompanied by militarized Israeli police, armed with rubber bullets and tear gas, when they displaced the Bedouin, the pastoral Arab tribes, who lived where the trees stand today.

“Since 1948, the Israeli government has used ‘afforestation,’ or the planting of trees, to uproot Palestinian communities like Atir, to forcibly limit the growth of others, and to hide evidence of yet others already destroyed. Along the way, organizations like the JNF have helped both finance the operations and launder them to unsuspecting contributors.”

Melvin Salberg and Jonathan Pollard

In 1998, when Melvin Salberg was seated as the Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the group came out swinging in support of Jonathan Pollard, whom you may remember as one of the most infamous spies to operate on American soil.

Pollard now lives in Israel, and, per Ha’aretz, he has recently advocated for exiling the entire Palestinian population to… Ireland. You might be wondering why Palestinians should be exiled to anywhere, let alone Ireland? These are the kinds of questions that David Glick asked for decades. These are the kinds of questions the Salbergs will likely never ask.

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